Nature regularly reminds of our limits. Tornadoes just destroyed neighborhoods in the midwest and a major typhoon did massive damage in the Philippines a week ago.
The motorcycle related part of this is that the major Japanese earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan two+ years ago delayed the intro of the Super Tenere into North America by about 4 months. Factories making some of our electronics and other parts were totally or partially destroyed, and a rotating power outage was implemented across the country.
It's amazing that Yamaha was able in only 4 months to replace the production facilities, move assembly lines, re-tool, get the parts into new bikes, and to us. The forum brought us all together in making a banner that was sent to Yamaha, plus the company designers, engineers, and other staff actually responded. The sense of community was pretty special and continues, even if some newer owners are not aware.
I got to see the tsunami damaged coastline in Japan a week ago, hiring a taxi to travel about 20 miles and as close to the beach as we could, beginning about 50 miles north of the Fukushima Daichi nuclear power plant (which is still massively leaking) and ending at the Sendai International Airport. I thought I'd share a few photos, not just of the devastation, but of how incredibly far the Japanese have come in their rebuilding.
First, realize that most of Japan is not a big city like Tokyo. It's a nation of beautiful green mountains, such as these visible from my hotel room in Ogawara. To the left of this view were snow capped mountains and white ski trails. Most of the country is very much like the coast of Oregon or Maine.
My taxi driver and I dropped into the coastal flats from the ridge in the background of this photo. Until the tsunami, this area was either lush farm fields or developed and people lived where you are looking. These are salt-damaged farm fields:
It wasn't uncommon to come to a scene like the folks behind me in the photo below:
This was a neighborhood near the mouth of the Abukuma River and these groups are still cleaning and removing debris.
I mentioned it having been a neighborhood. Note the remains of the foundation behind me, with the can on the raggedy rebar sticking up. There was an entire neighborhood of these foundation remains and all the twisted rebar was pointed the same direction, toward inland. (The houses in the background are new.)
In photos and according to people who were there, once off the actual beach the actual devastation did not come from the water. The water was not even seen inland at first. Just like being in a dry river bed after a storm, the leading edge of the water picked up anything that would float and what people saw was a moving wall of tree trunks, cars, and building materials that overpowered whatever stood in it's path and scoured the land.
Below is a small memorial at the corner of a house foundation. There was an item for a man, boy(s?), daughter(s?), and even the pet(s). But conspicuously none for a woman.
And the first of uncountable small groups of fresh cemetery markers. You can almost feel the haste of creating this small cemetery:
While newer and more organized, note the fresh foundation here:
Such sights were common-place. But there were virtually no ruined buildings to see anywhere. Looking at Google Earth, you can see numerous open hold freighters and barges, so at first it appears that much has gone into the ocean. However, the majority of the clean-up is finished.
[font=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]I personally saw that Japan is extremely eco conscious and was told that they had huge areas where debris was sorted to recover what they could of the metals and so forth. In mind-boggling scale, there are perfectly graded mountains of sand and debris along the coast, presumably with debris beneath the sand I just could not comprehend the numbers of dump truck loads required to create full mountains like these.[/font]
Speaking of which, the beach roads are an unending stream of dump and construction trucks. You can't escape them or the beeping of back-up beepers:
I'm not sure how many construction office trailers, back-hoes, and bull dozers there are for construction elsewhere in the country. There are so many near the coast that there are parking lots of them and this was just a smaller one:
Everywhere were massive earthen works being built. While this tsunami was a one time event, the Japanese are not going to allow the ocean to do as much damage to the wide-open flat coastal plain if someday another does come.
The surprise of the day was how many new houses and building had been completed in just 2 years. This was and continues to be the home to the locals. The beginnings of new neighborhoods like the photo below covered much of the 20 mile stretch. Regular people have grieved and are putting their lives in order.
Even the international airport had to essentially be rebuilt, as the salt water flooded the runways and built-in facilities to half the depth of the terminal's first floor. It's all new and fresh today.
While the sights were awe-inspiring, on a much smaller scale I've seen similar rebuilding of neighborhoods in mid-west America and the message is the same.
Keep your faith, as the rain and water will stop, we help each other continue, and we make life go on.
The motorcycle related part of this is that the major Japanese earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan two+ years ago delayed the intro of the Super Tenere into North America by about 4 months. Factories making some of our electronics and other parts were totally or partially destroyed, and a rotating power outage was implemented across the country.
It's amazing that Yamaha was able in only 4 months to replace the production facilities, move assembly lines, re-tool, get the parts into new bikes, and to us. The forum brought us all together in making a banner that was sent to Yamaha, plus the company designers, engineers, and other staff actually responded. The sense of community was pretty special and continues, even if some newer owners are not aware.
I got to see the tsunami damaged coastline in Japan a week ago, hiring a taxi to travel about 20 miles and as close to the beach as we could, beginning about 50 miles north of the Fukushima Daichi nuclear power plant (which is still massively leaking) and ending at the Sendai International Airport. I thought I'd share a few photos, not just of the devastation, but of how incredibly far the Japanese have come in their rebuilding.
First, realize that most of Japan is not a big city like Tokyo. It's a nation of beautiful green mountains, such as these visible from my hotel room in Ogawara. To the left of this view were snow capped mountains and white ski trails. Most of the country is very much like the coast of Oregon or Maine.
My taxi driver and I dropped into the coastal flats from the ridge in the background of this photo. Until the tsunami, this area was either lush farm fields or developed and people lived where you are looking. These are salt-damaged farm fields:
It wasn't uncommon to come to a scene like the folks behind me in the photo below:
This was a neighborhood near the mouth of the Abukuma River and these groups are still cleaning and removing debris.
I mentioned it having been a neighborhood. Note the remains of the foundation behind me, with the can on the raggedy rebar sticking up. There was an entire neighborhood of these foundation remains and all the twisted rebar was pointed the same direction, toward inland. (The houses in the background are new.)
In photos and according to people who were there, once off the actual beach the actual devastation did not come from the water. The water was not even seen inland at first. Just like being in a dry river bed after a storm, the leading edge of the water picked up anything that would float and what people saw was a moving wall of tree trunks, cars, and building materials that overpowered whatever stood in it's path and scoured the land.
Below is a small memorial at the corner of a house foundation. There was an item for a man, boy(s?), daughter(s?), and even the pet(s). But conspicuously none for a woman.
And the first of uncountable small groups of fresh cemetery markers. You can almost feel the haste of creating this small cemetery:
While newer and more organized, note the fresh foundation here:
Such sights were common-place. But there were virtually no ruined buildings to see anywhere. Looking at Google Earth, you can see numerous open hold freighters and barges, so at first it appears that much has gone into the ocean. However, the majority of the clean-up is finished.
[font=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]I personally saw that Japan is extremely eco conscious and was told that they had huge areas where debris was sorted to recover what they could of the metals and so forth. In mind-boggling scale, there are perfectly graded mountains of sand and debris along the coast, presumably with debris beneath the sand I just could not comprehend the numbers of dump truck loads required to create full mountains like these.[/font]
Speaking of which, the beach roads are an unending stream of dump and construction trucks. You can't escape them or the beeping of back-up beepers:
I'm not sure how many construction office trailers, back-hoes, and bull dozers there are for construction elsewhere in the country. There are so many near the coast that there are parking lots of them and this was just a smaller one:
Everywhere were massive earthen works being built. While this tsunami was a one time event, the Japanese are not going to allow the ocean to do as much damage to the wide-open flat coastal plain if someday another does come.
The surprise of the day was how many new houses and building had been completed in just 2 years. This was and continues to be the home to the locals. The beginnings of new neighborhoods like the photo below covered much of the 20 mile stretch. Regular people have grieved and are putting their lives in order.
Even the international airport had to essentially be rebuilt, as the salt water flooded the runways and built-in facilities to half the depth of the terminal's first floor. It's all new and fresh today.
While the sights were awe-inspiring, on a much smaller scale I've seen similar rebuilding of neighborhoods in mid-west America and the message is the same.
Keep your faith, as the rain and water will stop, we help each other continue, and we make life go on.
